Alarms Sound Over New Fatal Mpox Strain Detected in Democratic Republic of Congo

By Al Mayadeen English

Experts have warned of the risk of a global Monkeypox outbreak after a new strand was detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Scientists have warned of the international transmissibility of a new strain of Mpox (monkeypox) that is killing children and causing pregnant women to miscarry their fetuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

The disease seems to be highly contagious and could be rapidly transmitted through sexual or non-sexual contact, particularly in crowds, such as schools, The Guardian reported. 

In the South Kivu province, hundreds of infected individuals headed to a hospital in Kamituga, in what doctors coined the "tip of the iceberg" for a wider outbreak.

Mpox is a variant of smallpox and induces flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions all over the body. There are three recognized strains of the virus that are known to have low fatality rates, however, the newly transmitted virus in Congo is a mutation of the clade I strain. Doctors and experts found that it possesses a 5% fatality rate in adults, and 10% in children, while also causing miscarriages among pregnant women. 

Clade I is usually transmitted through the consumption of infected bushmeat, which would rapidly infect the household. 

However, it was initially speculated that the outbreak was caused by Clade II via sexual contact because of the site of detection of the first case of the virus, but scientists genetically tested the mutation to determine the exact strain.

The risk of global outbreak

Trudie Lang, professor of global health research at Oxford University, said the situation was extremely worrying due to the unavailability of vaccines in Congo. Meanwhile, the number of mild and asymptomatic cases is not known yet, which poses an additional danger because of the long intubation time it takes for the symptoms to manifest. This means that the virus could be transmitted in the community before the infected individual realizes they have it. 

John Claude Udahemuka, a lecturer at the University of Rwanda, who is involved in the medical response to Mpox, said, "It’s undoubtedly the most dangerous of all the known strains of mpox, considering how it is transmitted, how it is spread, and also the symptoms."

Cross-border movement is widely frequent between the DRC, Rwanda, Uganda, and other bordering countries, which increases the risk of international transmission. 

Udahemuka consequently urged countries across the world to fully prepare for a global outbreak, saying "Everyone should be able to detect the disease as early as possible. But more important, everyone should support the local research and local response so that it doesn’t spread."

Monkeypox still global health emergency: WHO

In 2022, the World Health Organization's emergency committee ruled that monkeypox should remain listed as a global health emergency. 

The experts "maintained the consensus view that the incident continues to meet the... criteria for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern" after a discussion on the virus that rapidly began spreading throughout the globe in May 2022, as per a statement from WHO.

Experts indicated that while some progress had been achieved in containing the disease, it was still too soon to declare the emergency finished.

The announcement added that WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has acknowledged and concurred with the experts' recommendations.